Safe Blogging

[mdlbear]

From docbug_feed and the EFF mailing list, here's an article on How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else) -- by which they really mean "How to Blog Anonymously".

I take a rather different approach, and simply assume that anything I put on a website is eventually going to become public, and that everything I write can pretty easily be traced back to me, so I may as well be open about it. Even if I were to set up a blog on invisiblog.com (and how do you know I haven't?), I might carelessly let something slip, or be betrayed by a turn of phrase or a reference to a secret only a handful of people know, or a minor fact that limits the possibilities. (Just as an example, I might mention the fact that the house I grew up in in Connecticut was torn down to make way for a freeway interchange.)

So I rarely use friends locking here on LJ, and don't hide the fact that the Mandelbear is really Steve Savitzky. Anyone who's sufficiently interested can hit Google and find out that I was using that handle on alt.callahans more than a dozen years ago. I try hard to be polite and respectful in what I write (not always successfully), and simply don't mention certain things. I don't go out of my way to mention where I work, but anyone interested can find it out pretty quickly, so I don't worry too much if something slips, and I'm careful not to mention any trade secrets, or indeed anything that I wouldn't casually mention to somebody at a trade show. Even if they don't work for a competitor now, they might in the future.

If I were starting now, in a post-9/11 world, living in a country that's in grave danger of becoming a right-wing theocracy, I might be more careful. The net's not as safe as it once was. But for me, the open road is probably the only one left, so I might as well stay open and make the best of it.

Comments

[mithriltabby]

I use friends locking any time I’m complaining about my workplace, as I figure that will constitute reasonable evidence of discretion if my complaints ever get out. If I’m just complaining about the technology I have to work with, don’t bother. My post complaining about the lack of documentation for STATUS_FSFILTER_OP_COMPLETED_SUCCESSFULLY may be the only publicly available information for that little Windows internal...

[mdlbear]

I'd probably have to go a bit farther, since three or four (depending on how you count) of my coworkers are on LJ and my friends' list. Luckily I'm enjoying my job at present.

I do use friends locking to talk about financial and relationship matters that I don't want to be widely known, but one must always assume that things will leak.

[mithriltabby]

If I had any coworkers on my friends list, I’d have to create a custom friends group to exclude them when complaining about work. And I think assuming things can get out is a good practice: I wouldn’t put secure data on LJ at all, no matter how much locking is available.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I frequently use custom lists to talk about work or other stuff. I'm prepared for the eventuality that my bosses or my mother will make their way onto LJ.

[tiggerypum.livejournal.com]

I agree that almost anything I post could become public... I've seen it happen to other people.

All the same, my kids are on LJ and their friends, so if I have a kid or work rant, it's locked to a special list that excludes them... no need to be in their faces about it. I know some who have made separate identity accounts for some purposes, but I agree that someone might figure out who I am anyway, especially if I use it as a place to somehow talk more freely about some topics.... and it sounds like too much work for something that could still bite me bigtime.

So yeah, I lock at times, but don't assume that means it's really protected.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

Usually, I friends-lock anything related to work that has the potential of exposing me to civil action for talking too much about products that aren't released yet. But then, software, government, and sausage have a lot in common...

[mdlbear]

I friends-lock stuff that might be embarassing to others; stuff at work that isn't released yet doesn't get talked about, period. The net has a long memory, and since I'm in research there's no telling when, if ever, some of our stuff might get out.

Anything that's been published or patented is, of course, fair game.